


better with you

by iridescence (10softbot)



Series: the grinch who wrote christmas [3]
Category: The Boyz (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, Getting Together, M/M, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:01:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28185792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/10softbot/pseuds/iridescence
Summary: Sunwoo is stuck at home, unable to visit his family for Christmas. That is, until Chanhee invites him over for the holidays, and while Sunwoo has many feelings he would rather not address, he also doesn’t want to spend Christmas all alone.
Relationships: Choi Chanhee | New/Ji Changmin | Q, Choi Chanhee | New/Ji Changmin | Q/Kim Sunwoo
Series: the grinch who wrote christmas [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064672
Comments: 1
Kudos: 89





	better with you

**Author's Note:**

  * For [voguelight (sulfurus)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sulfurus/gifts).



> welcome to day three of five days of christmas from yours truly, where i'll be posting small gifts for my friends because i am more than happy to have them in my life and they deserve good things after a rough year.
> 
> **Do not translate or respost my work anywhere. I do not consent to reposting or translating of any of my works.**

Sunwoo knows his Christmas is ruined when his phone buzzes with an emergency alert the week before.

The notification alerts citizens to the snowstorm currently happening right outside his window; when he turns on the tv to check the news, the anchor informs in a very solemn tone that the roads leading outside the city have been blocked until the weather settles. Sunwoo sighs, slumping down on his couch, eyes darting to the packed bags by the front door.

Not even a minute later, he gets a text from his siter, saying that their mother is now sulking in the kitchen because he won’t be able to make the trip back home. He sends an apology with a sad face attached to it and a promise to be home for new year’s, feeling his heart hurt to be letting his mother down. He knows it isn’t his fault that the forecast for the next week is nonstop snow, but he does think that if he hadn’t gone out of town for college then maybe this wouldn’t be happening right now.

Sunwoo sends a message to the group chat with his friends, sending a desolate _“anyone in town for the holidays? </3” _and praying someone will say yes so he doesn’t have to feel like shit all by himself. He watches as the read badge goes down one digit at a time, and before any of them can answer, his phone starts buzzing in his hand. There is a split second between the first buzz and the screen switch for the incoming call; he isn’t at all surprised to see Chanhee's contact ringing him.

 _“I thought you were home with your family?”_ is the greeting Chanhee gives him instead of hello.

“I was going home today,” he says, trying not to whine. “But it’s snowing like another ice age is coming and all the roads are blocked now, so I’m stuck here with instant rice and spam in my pantry for Christmas.”

There is a pause that stretches for almost a minute, like Chanhee is either processing his words or carefully choosing his own to say next.

 _“You can come over to ours, if you want,”_ Chanhee says after a while. _“Changmin and I will be staying around since, you know, our families—”_

Chanhee cuts himself off, clearing his throat, and if Sunwoo closes his eyes he can see the shift in Chanhee's expression, the way he averts his gaze everywhere but the person he is talking to. There is the soft sound of a cabinet closing in the background and then shifting, and Sunwoo can almost see Changmin turning around to pay attention to Chanhee's conversation.

“That would be nice,” Sunwoo answers. “Might have to wait for the storm to go down a bit, but then I’ll be on my way—considering I’ll survive the walk there.”

 _“Okay,”_ Chanhee says, _“I’ll let Changmin know.”_

And then he hangs up.

Sunwoo settles in his couch, turning the tv off and pulling the comforter he had draped over the back of the couch over his body. He figures taking a nap won’t hurt – it’s not like the raging storm outside is going to subside anytime soon, anyway.

When he comes to it again, his apartment is bathed in darkness. He tries to rub the sleep off his eyes, fishing his phone from under his body to check the time; it is only a little past seven, and his screen is filled with new messages notifications. A handful are from his mother telling him to take care, and the other ones from his friends answering his message in the chat – Sunwoo soon finds out everyone else is out of town except for him, Chanhee and Changmin.

He locks his phone and averts his eyes to the window then; Sunwoo is pleased to find it is no longer snowing, and then he is quick on his feet to leave. He puts on the several layers of winter clothes and padding, making sure he won’t freeze to death in the twenty minute walk to Chanhee's and Changmin's apartment, grabbing the bag with his more wearable clothes on his way out and locking the door behind him.

It is still so ridiculously cold outside he can feel it biting cold on his cheeks and the tip of his nose, can feel it bleeding to his bones despite the layers upon layers of nearly failed attempts of warming himself up. He's glad the streets are deserted enough that no one sees him slipping on ice more than once.

The twenty-minute walk feels like two hours, and by the time he gets to Chanhee's apartment complex his teeth are chattering like never before. He rings the doorbell once, twice, three times, trying to urge either Chanhee or Changmin to answer the door quickly. It seems to work – he can hear Chanhee's voice yelling from somewhere in the apartment, and only a few seconds later the door is being thrown open. Sunwoo quickly slips off his shoes and into the apartment, sighing in relief at the heater working under his socked feet.

“Hello to you too,” it’s Changmin who greets him, which Sunwoo only notices a moment too late.

“It’s freezing cold outside,” Sunwoo stammers out, trying to hug his padding closer to his body. “So fucking cold.”

Changmin smiles in sympathy, running his hands over the straps of his backpack to take it from him. “Chanhee is getting a bath ready for you. Go.”

He almost runs all the way to the bathroom, not at all minding the way Changmin chuckles behind him. The room is steaming when he walks in, and Sunwoo can’t help the sigh of relief that escapes his lips.

“Come,” Chanhee says from where he kneels on the floor next to the bathtub, lightly tapping its edge to beckon him. “I literally just finished filling it up.”

Sunwoo gives him a pointed look, trying to talk with his eyes when his voice won’t work properly, and it only gets him a raised brow from Chanhee.

“What? You’re gonna act all shy now?” Chanhee scoffs. “Come on, it’s not like I haven’t seen your dick before.”

If Sunwoo didn’t feel so cold, he is sure he would be able to feel his entire face heat up. He sheds his layers until he is left with only his boxers on, stepping into the tub with careful movements. Chanhee doesn’t move until he is submerged in hot water from the neck down; it takes Sunwoo a minute to register that Chanhee's once bleach blond hair is now a light shade of brown, but he doesn’t yet have the energy to ask when that happened.

“Thanks,” Sunwoo murmurs, feeling just slightly better. He notices the way Chanhee tries not to smile at him.

“Mm,” Chanhee hums, nodding once before turning to leave. “If you need anything, just call us, yeah?”

Sunwoo hums, too, right before Chanhee walks out and closes the door with a soft click behind him. Sunwoo sighs, enjoying the warmth of the water on his body, finally feeling able to relax. He doesn’t know how long he sits there for; it feels like only a couple minutes, but then Changmin is gently shaking him awake and he knows it must’ve been at least half an hour.

He didn’t even realize he had dozed off.

The night doesn’t get any more exciting than that. They put on a movie, have dinner, drink warm cups of tea, and talk their ears off until Sunwoo falls asleep on their couch. Things are nice like this, familiar even; Sunwoo has lost count how many times he’s found himself spending the night in this very apartment, both sober and not quite – platonically, but also not quite.

The week that follows is nothing like the nights he’s spent around them. There is something about witnessing the two of them in their own world early in the morning or late at night that tugs at Sunwoo's heartstrings; it’s the way Changmin never fails to press a soft kiss into Chanhee's cheek when he walks into the kitchen right after waking up and Chanhee gives him a steaming mug of freshly brewed coffee, the way Chanhee reminds Changmin after every shower not to leave his wet towel on their bed.

 _Their_ bed, _their_ apartment, their own safe haven.

It’s the way Sunwoo can hear them murmur to each other every night after going to bed and he can still hear Chanhee's giggles through the closed door, and how their socked feet knock whenever they are sat anywhere, the urgent need to be there for one another at all times. It makes Sunwoo feel tender and envious, makes him feel like he has no right to feel the way he does towards either of them.

On the day before Christmas, once the food is ready and all set, Chanhee sits them down around the dinner table to talk. Sunwoo can feel his hands clammy, his throat going dry, heart thundering from days of lingering glances and half-assed subtlety.

“Sunwoo,” Chanhee starts, tone more serious than it usually is, “we know you know we haven’t been exactly subtle these days.”

Sunwoo nods, not really sure of what to say.

“We see the way you look at us, too,” he continues, and Sunwoo wishes their apartment floor would open up and eat him whole. “We know the way you feel, we’ve messed around before, but more than that – we’ve talked about this before.”

Sunwoo nods again. They _have_ talked about this before – back then, Sunwoo said he’d think about it, but they never brought it up again, so he’d figured it was best to forget. Now, he isn’t so sure that had been the best option.

“You know this, don’t you?” it’s Changmin who asks, reaching out for his hand, which Sunwoo lets him take. “That, if you want, we can be three?”

Sunwoo looks at Chanhee again.

“We’ve been respectful of your boundaries these past few days, especially because we didn’t want to push any limits,” Chanhee adds, his eyes softening, “but we can’t pretend like there’s nothing going on forever, can we? And it’s almost Christmas, so we’d like to know—what do you think?”

“I think—” Sunwoo starts, clears his throat, his brain clearly _not_ able to think any further than this, “I’m envious of you two and what you have, and I’m afraid I don’t fit into all _this,”_ he says, gesturing between the two of them and then folding his hands on top of the table. “I don’t wanna mess up with what you’ve established already.”

“Sunwoo, we’re the ones asking you,” Changmin says. “We wouldn’t if we weren’t confident that this can work out. If you don’t want to then that’s fine, but if it’s because you’re afraid—trust us, then?”

And Sunwoo has considered this so many times – has wondered how it’d feel to wake up every morning knowing that his heart is finally at ease, to have someone he can comfortably share his worries with, a bed he can crawl into and have company when things get hard. Maybe he is being greedy, wanting the two of them when they are both already taken, but then doesn’t that make them much worse than him?

He doesn’t want to feel guilty for feeling the way he feels anymore.

Sunwoo takes a deep breath, exhales, unfolds his hands and splays them on the table. He looks at Changmin, then at Chanhee, and with a small nod, he says, “I guess we can try.”

The smiles that split their faces in half is so blinding Sunwoo almost feels undeserving of being on the receiving end of all this. His heart feels like it is about to burst out of his chest when Changmin nearly crawls across the table and hurriedly asks, _“can I kiss you?”_ and, honestly, how could Sunwoo ever say no to him?

The kiss isn’t deep, or hurried, or bruising; the press of lips lacks the fierceness in Changmin's eyes, but it’s soft and warm like his heart. Changmin pulls away and then Chanhee is leaning in – a quick peck that barely catches the corners of his lips, but that makes the back of his neck and his ears burn just the same.

Later that night, when they fall into bed, Sunwoo pressed between the both of them, Sunwoo thinks he feels the warmth of a thousand suns burning in his heart. Changmin presses a soft kiss into his temple and Chanhee presses another, and it’s with whispers of _merry Christmas_ and _I love yous_ that he falls asleep, glad that he isn’t spending his Christmas all alone.

**Author's Note:**

> chanhee said they're a family of three and who tf am i if i don't write them as a Family Of Three  
> you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/changminize) and [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/changminize)


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